T-Mobile's headquarters in Bellevue

T-Mobile annouced today that it has turned on Wideband LTE service for the Greater Bay Area in California, offering its customers big gains in data speeds. Wideband LTE allows smartphones and other devices that hook up to T-Mobile’s data network to use more “lanes” for faster data transfer.

That translates into a significant boost in performance for T-Mobile users. The company says users could theoretically see peak download speeds of 110 Mbps. Under ideal conditions, users could download a full 90-minute HD movie in 3.5 minutes. Right now, Bay Area customers use an average of 2.5 GB of data every month, and this speed boost will make their transfers even faster.

It’s a significant boost for the affected counties, which include San Francisco and Silicon Valley. They’ll be joining 18 other metropolitan areas that have already received the Wideband LTE upgrade, including Seattle and Portland.

The Bellevue-based wireless company, which has been making steady gains in subscribers against AT&T and Verizon, is scheduled to release its third-quarter results this evening.

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